As an alternative to using chemical fabric softeners or dryer sheets, dryer balls may be placed in a clothes dryer along with the articles of clothing to be dried. The dryer balls are tossed around in the clothes dryer during the drying cycle and are purported to help fluff and soften clothing.
Some conventional dryer balls are made of heat-resistant plastic or rubber and are covered with outwardly extending knobs or spikes. Examples of such dryer balls include Nellie's™ dryer balls, Dryer Magic™ dryer balls, Dryer Max™ dryer balls and The Original Dryer Balls™. Typically, such dryer balls are about 7.6 cm or 3 inches in diameter, or are about the size of a tennis ball or smaller.
Other dryer balls are made from wool. For example, some dryer balls are made from wool yarn which has been twisted or wound into a ball and felted by washing and drying the ball several times in succession. Typically, wool dryer balls are hard and dense, and are similar in size to plastic dryer balls (e.g. about the size of a tennis ball or smaller). They are generally intended to emulate the function of plastic dryer balls.
A main objective of conventional plastic or wool dryer balls is to soften and fluff clothing by beating the clothing as the balls are tumbled in the clothes dryer along with the clothing. The balls are typically quite heavy so that they can accomplish this objective.
In some cases, conventional plastic and wool dryer balls are purported to also help reduce drying time by separating the clothing as it dries. However, in general, conventional dryer balls have not been shown to reduce drying time by any significant amount.
There is a general desire for a dryer ball that addresses the aforementioned problems.
The foregoing examples of the related art and limitations related thereto are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the specification and a study of the drawings.